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How does a restaurant chain go from small-town food court staple to most visible purveyor of hamburgers in the downtown core of Canada's largest city?

A&W has it figured out, that's for sure. The root beer-centric fast food franchise has been on an aggressive expansion tear in recent years, and Toronto has proven very popular in terms of where it wants to be.

The company's sleeker-than-usual black and orange "urban concept stores" have been popping up around The 6ix since 2010, more and more of them each year, it seems.

It's almost as though A&W has replaced Starbucks as the default harbinger of gentrification. You'd think so, at least, by what residents of one downtown neighbourhood are writing on Facebook this week.

huh, so the old Cai Yuan supermarket seen here in 2012 on the corner of Broadview & Gerrard that burnt down a few years ago is finally getting its first tenant.. an A&W franchise. pic.twitter.com/1zfW7vuoBv